"Congressional investigators have upheld Boeing's protest of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., and recommended that the service hold a new competition," according to the International Herald Tribune.

President Bush asked Congress today to remove the ban on offshore drilling, the day after presidential candidate John McCain made the same proposal. "For years, the president has pushed Congress to expand our domestic oil supply, but Democrats in Congress have consistently blocked such action," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

The business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn is gaining momentum, especially for the business community and those who want the networking element more than the social one. LinkedIn will announce today that it raised $53 million in capital; “That heady valuation is more than the $580 million that the News Corporation paid for MySpace in 2005, but less than the $15 billion value assigned to Facebook last year when Microsoft bought a minority stake,” according to The New York Times.

“Pfizer Inc … said on Wednesday that Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd … may begin selling a U.S. generic form of its Lipitor cholesterol fighter by late 2011 under a settlement deal, at least five months later than Wall Street expectations,” Reuters reports.

The Wall Street Journal reports, “The principals of DreamWorks SKG are close to a deal with one of India's biggest entertainment conglomerates to form a new movie venture, according to people familiar with the situation, a move that would give director Steven Spielberg the cash to finance his DreamWorks team's departure from Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures later this year.”

Robert Holmes of The Street writes that, “The inability to refinance debt amid weak economic conditions could spell doom for XM Satellite Radio … and Sirius Satellite Radio … if their proposed merger fails to win the support of dueling regulators.”

Three men were charged Wednesday in connection with the 2006 murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, "but investigators said nothing about who ordered the assassination or why. A man formally identified by authorities last month as the shooter remains at large, as does the unknown person who organized the murder," The Washington Post reports.

Although the United States and Lithuania have not began any talks on the subject, the Lithuanian defense minister said his country would possibly be open to the idea of hosting parts of the U.S. missile defense system.

More aid is reaching those people suffering from Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar six weeks ago than previously believed. “They say they have seen no signs of starvation or widespread outbreaks of disease. While it is estimated that the cyclone may have killed 130,000 people, the number of lives lost specifically because of the junta’s slow response to the disaster appears to have been smaller than expected,” according to The New York Times.

The Guardian writes, "The biggest ever fund set up to battle deforestation was launched today, targeting the vast Congo basin rainforest in central Africa. Britain and Norway are providing £108m and will also supply satellite imaging technology to monitor the area."

"Congressional investigators have upheld Boeing's protest of a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract awarded to Northrop Grumman Corp. and Airbus parent European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., and recommended that the service hold a new competition," according to the International Herald Tribune.

USA Today reports, “Mississippi River floodwaters threaten to overwhelm levees in more than two dozen river towns in Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, where some communities continue to rely on decades-old flood controls that fall short of modern-day guidelines.”

Documents released by a Senate panel yesterday on the interrogation procedures at Guantanamo Bay indicated “a larger CIA role in advising Defense Department interrogators than was previously known,” the Chicago Tribune reports.

"A federal appeals court judge under scrutiny for sexually explicit videos and photos posted on a personal Web site is the victim of distortions and 'outright lies' published by the Los Angeles Times, his wife charged Monday," the Associated Press reports.

"California public-health officials have ordered 13 online companies to immediately stop offering their services in that state," citing concerns with the science behind some of the tests they use, according to Wired.

Tiger Woods will miss the rest of the 2008 golf season because of a knee surgery, he announced soon after winning the U.S. Open in a tight match against Rocco Mediate. "Woods said no date has been determined for the surgery, which will be the third in five years on Woods' left knee."

The New York Mets lost their first game under new manager Jerry Manuel by a score of 6-1 to the Angels. Shortstop Jose Reyes’s hamstring troubles and petulance in the first inning added extra angst to the first game without former skipper Willie Randolph.

"Billy Ray Cyrus says he wasn't around when Annie Leibovitz photographed his 15-year-old daughter, Miley, wrapped in a sheet with her back exposed, for the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine." He also said that he was “surprised” by the photo, the Associated Press writes.